PRESS :: Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 25, 2003

Contact: Leland Swenson
(530) 756-8518, ext. 36

Event Analyzes Globalization's Effect
on World Food System

(SACRAMENTO, CA) A precautionary approach, with open public debate and research, must be part of evaluating new technologies such as transgenetic crops and food irradiation, according to George Davis, Healdsburg, CA, board member of Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF). Mr. Davis spoke in Sacramento Tuesday evening at "Uncertain Harvest," a panel discussion about the impacts of new technologies on the global food system.

"It's extremely important for us to look carefully at these new trade proposals and technologies," said Davis. "Some of them may not turn out to be as benign and beneficial as their promoters want us to believe. The corporations in control of the technologies have resisted effective regulations, public research and labeling."

Other participants on the panel included George Naylor, Iowa corn and soybean farmer and president of the National Family Farm Coalition; Silvia Ribeiro, Uruguayan researcher and program manager for Mexico City-based Action Group for Erosion, Technology and Concentration; Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program in Washington, D.C.; and Jayson Cainglet, of the Asia Pacific Network on Food Security, who has worked in agricultural issues in the Philippines for 15 years.

"Farmers currently produce more food than the world can consume, given today’s distribution systems and the high level of international poverty," Davis said. "Farmers dealing with decreasing commodity prices are on an economic race to the bottom. This is unhealthy for farm families and their rural communities all over the globe. And the environment loses as well."

"Current international trade agreements, the structure of farm policy, the industrialization of agriculture, the emerging technologies — all these things place power and control in the hands of a very few,” stated Davis. “The result is bad news for farmers, who will be left competing to see who can produce the cheapest food and be willing to degrade the environment at the same time."

Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) is a California-based organization of rural and urban members dedicated to cultivating healthy farms, food and communities. More information about CAFF can be found on the Web at www.caff.org

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